FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT PALESTINIAN REFUGEES - PAGE 2

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is willing to trade land in the West Bank for territory in Israel, a swap aiming to accommodate Jewish settlers, a U.S. Jewish leader who met with him said Thursday. Israel and the Palestinians are waiting for the United States to decide whether to offer bridging proposals to break the logjam in their negotiations, officials from both sides said. The talks are deadlocked over control of holy sites in Jerusalem, though other key issues, including Palestinian refugees, and Jewish settlements and borders, have not been resolved.

Alan M. Dershowitz, Harvard law professor, is wrong to blame the lack of a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on "right-wing American Jews and Christians who are more Israeli than the Israelis, Islamic fundamentalists and left-wing European and American academics, politicians and church leaders who are more Palestinian than the Palestinians" ("This time, peace may be real thing," Commentary, Sept. 9). Since the mid-1970s, Palestinians and other Arabs and Muslims (and the left in this country and Europe)

WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met a group of senior Arab officials on Monday as he sought to build regional support for any fresh push for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Kerry has made no secret of his hope to revive peace talks, which broke down in 2010, but it remains unclear whether U.S. President Barack Obama will decide to back a major U.S. effort. In convening the group, Kerry is trying to ensure that a new peace process would have the backing of the Arab states, who, if they were to offer Israel a comprehensive peace, hold a powerful card that could provide an incentive for Israeli compromises.

I could hardly believe how one-sided and distorted was "Arab refugees fear losing their dream" (Page 1, Jan. 4). Their plight is sad indeed, but they have only the Arab countries to blame. You say that in 1948, Israel "went to war with its Arab neighbors." The truth is that at the stroke of midnight on May 15, 1948, five Arab countries--Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and irregular units from Iraq--invaded tiny Israel in order to destroy it. They were defeated, and in the turn of events, some 600,000 Palestinians became refugees.

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday the Arab League's acknowledgment that Israelis and Palestinians may have to swap land in any peace deal was "a very big step forward. " Arab states appeared to soften their 2002 peace plan on Monday when Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, said the two sides could trade land rather than conform exactly to their 1967 borders. His comment, made on behalf of an Arab League delegation, amounted to a concession to Israel.

ABU DHABI, Feb 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Wednesday, the State Department said, as he seeks to nudge Israel and the Palestinians toward a peace deal by the end of April. U.S.-brokered talks between the two sides have made little visible progress since they resumed in July after a three-year hiatus with a goal of reaching an agreement within nine months. "Secretary Kerry will meet with Palestinian Authority President Abbas in Paris, France on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in Abu Dhabi, where Kerry is meeting senior United Arab Emirates officials.

* Iran says to send aid to Yarmouk refugee district * Rebels seized the area earlier this week DUBAI, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Iran plans to send humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Syria living in an area recently seized by Syrian rebels, Iran's ambassador to Syria was quoted as saying on Saturday. Iran has been a staunch supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of Syria who has been battling to put down a 21-month uprising against his rule, and Tehran has also long cast itself as a champion of the Palestinian people.